Definition (house-style)
The hyssop principle is George Warnock’s central soteriological framework: hyssop — a humble, low-growing plant (cf. 1Kgs. 4:33) — functions as the instrument by which blood and cleansing water are applied. Humility and brokenness are the conditions of cleansing; without the hyssop of the broken will, the blood of Christ cannot be applied.
Warnock grounds this principle in three Levitical purification rites: (1) the Passover (Ex. 12:22), where hyssop transfers the blood to the doorpost; (2) the law of the leper (Lev. 14:4-7), where hyssop carries the mixed blood and living water; (3) the ashes of the red heifer (Num. 19:18), where hyssop sprinkles the cleansing water. In every rite hyssop is the mediating instrument connecting the cleansing agent to the person who must be cleansed.
Author variants
Warnock
Warnock develops the hyssop principle as a soteriological model in which humility is the condition of cleansing:
“The use of hyssop was not optional. There could be no distinction […] The hyssop speaks of that humbling and breaking of the human will before God — a bitter medicine as far as the sick human heart is concerned — but fragrant and beautiful in the eyes of God as He stoops low to heal the broken and contrite heart.”
[Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html]
On the inseparability of Blood and Spirit through the hyssop principle:
“In the stream of God’s Spirit flows all the power of the Blood of Christ. That Blood is just as living and efficacious as it was on the day that the fountain for sin and uncleanness sprang from Calvary’s mount. We cannot partake of the Spirit without partaking of the Blood, for they have flowed together.”
[Warnock, hyssop2.html]
On the application to the leper (Lev. 14):
“The Blood is mingled with the Living Water! How determined we sometimes are to obtain the cleansing of the blood without the use of the hyssop.”
[Warnock, hyssop2.html]
For Warnock the hyssop principle describes not only initial conversion but also the ongoing process of sanctification: every new cleansing requires again the hyssop of the broken will. David’s prayer in Ps. 51:7 — “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean” — is the Old Testament type.